1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to image capturing apparatuses, such as digital still cameras, and more particularly, to an image capturing apparatus, a shooting control method, and a program for detecting the face of a subject and performing suitable shooting control including auto-focusing (AF), auto-exposure (AE), and auto-white-balance (AWB).
2. Description of the Related Art
Image capturing apparatuses, such as digital still cameras and digital video cameras, have an AF function. With the AF function, a subject is automatically focused upon. In general, an image of a subject is captured using an image capturing device, such as a charge-coupled device (CCD) or a complementary metal-oxide semiconductor (CMOS) device. In addition, a focus position is often automatically determined on the basis of the contrast of the captured image. Nowadays, in order to set the position of a desired point in an image to be focused upon, spot AF, by which a desired AF point within a specific AF detectable frame can be set, is also available. In the case that a spot AF mode is set as a shooting mode, a user selects a desired AF point within an AF detectable frame and issues a specific instruction to set the AF point on the screen. Then, a normal shooting operation is performed.
In addition, nowadays, detection of whether the face of a subject is located at a set AF point within a specific AF detectable frame, that is, so-called face detection can be performed.
As a technique of this type, an image capturing apparatus that performs high-quality image shooting under shooting control that is adapted for a particular subject to be shot is described, for example, in Japanese Unexamined Patent Application Publication No. 2007-104235.
That is, with the above-mentioned technique, an image capturing apparatus continuously performs shooting control that is adapted for a particular subject to be shot, such as the face of a human being, even in a case where the subject to be shot temporarily disappears from a photographic image to be captured due to a shield such as a wall.